Before you start contemplating the design of your new layout a big deciding factor is space and therefore what gauge you need to model in. For example an “N” gauge layout will take up approximately a quarter the area of a similar “OO” gauge layout. I have used these two gauge examples as they are the most readily available scales in railway model shops at the current time. There is a lot of controversy  in the modelling world about what gauge should be an industry standard - who cares! I model in “OO” gauge simply because the first train set my father bought me was a Hornby set (or perhaps Tri-ang in those distant halcyon days). Enough of this nostalgic nonsense! to the matter in hand. It doesn’t really matter which scale you use as long as it is the right one for your skills in modelling. The following information was trawled from the internet and magazines and I hope it goes a little further in helping you understand the different gauges. The scale by the way is how many mm to the foot, for instance a 10 foot retaining wall in real life would be 40 mm if modelled in “OO” gauge. So starting at the smallest

Z Gauge.
having only a 6.5mm track width this is the smallest RTR gauge with a scale of 1.5mm

2 mm
Fine scale for purist scratch builders 2 mm scale supported by the 2 mm scale association

N Gauge
9 mm track width at 2.06mm scale available generally from good model shops

3 mm
Another scale for kit and scratch builders . Full support from the 3 mm society

HO
Continental or American favourite 3.5mm scale but the same gauge as “OO” at         16.5mm

OO
By far the most popular British scale also known as 4 mm scale and is supported by just about every railway model shop.

EM
Scale of 4 mm but a track gauge of 18.2mm instead of 16.5mm for “OO” this is actually closer to scaled track gauge - for purists 

P4
Another 4 mm scale, track gauge being 18.83mm - for absolute purists!!

S
For scratch builders! Supported by the S gauge society

O
Also known as  7 mm Gaining in popularity but lots of space needed as it needs 4 times the space as “OO”

Any visitor who would like to write about any of the above gauges please E-mail me at email@thecoalingstage.co.uk Any article submitted will be published on a linked page.

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